Chapter 5

Long chapter, tried to do my best with it. Would love some reviews!

Tsukiko Amano, the last girl to leave the school on that night, was so confused that she did not even know where she was. No, it wasn't because she was selected to a game of death, or because she was without her friends. Pure and simple, Tsukiko did not have her heroin. And now abstinence was taking over.

The class bully faintly remembered Kumiko telling her and Tomoko to meet somewhere, in a certain direction. But Tsukiko wasn't sure where, she could not remember. All that mattered was her drug. If she stayed like that for a long time, Tsukiko would probably go insane and kill the first person she saw. But the girl still had some control over her instincts. She decided to go northwest, taking the empty road occupied only by small houses, which seemed to be old and decayed. Tsukiko walked to one of them and tried to open the door. It was locked. God, she couldn't stand a single more minute without her heroin, much less without a place to stay!

Then Tsukiko decided to look into her pocket, out of despair. And there it was: her syringe and her small heroin bag. Tsukiko should have found it to be very strange, giving the fact that she knew no personal objects would be taken into The Program. But she didn't care: Tsukiko slowly injected the drug into her right arm's vein, feeling guided by the pleasure and euphoria of the drug. Of course, it was useless to see that there was a huge black dot on her arm, a symbol of necrosis. Half-crazed, Tsukiko stormed down the street, until somebody near the closest street crossing caught her attention.

Tsukiko thought it at first to be another hallucination, but it wasn't: two people, Kumiko and Tomoko, were there waiting for her. As the bully came closer, Tomoko quickly noticed that she was drugged, by the enormous size of her dilated pupils. She asked:

"How did you get the heroin? All of my belongings were taken."

"I don't know."- Tsukiko answered with a crazy smile, not knowing if she should laugh or cry at that situation. – "I just found it in my pocket."

Kumiko Noma passively stared at the two as they talked, her two only friends. Analyzing them carefully.

"Hey, Kumiko-san, let's look in our bags to see what we've got." – Said Tomoko, and soon all three girls had their weapons at hand.

Of the three, Tsukiko was the luckiest: she got a large chainsaw, which miraculously was able to fit in her bag. Kumiko got a Derringer pistol, very small and weak for a gun, but perfect for female use. Tomoko was the most unlucky, getting a sharp drill as her weapon. It was actually good for hand to hand combat, and would also work in a surprise attack, but it was useless in case the enemy had a gun.

"Alright then." – mumbled Tsukiko, still extremely euphoric. – "We should look for a place to hide now. Walking on the streets with so many armed students around is dangerous, and we didn't get any awesome weapon. (Tsukiko was hoping to receive a machine or shot gun, of course).

As the girls tried to open several houses on that street, all of them being locked or so decayed it was useless to try to hide there, the small part of Tsukiko's brain that wasn't dominated by the drug thought about playing or not playing that game. Of course, the bully knew that there wasn't any chance for her to ally with anybody besides those two. The entire class hated her. Those bitches would meet their end at their group's hands, of course, especially that pathetic loser Sato Mizunoe. Tsukiko did not feel guilty for bullying the poor girl at all. After all, who told her to be so ugly, stupid and pathetic?

Tsukiko could not forget about Asuka Yamanaka and Misa Fujiwara, the two sluts who tried to ruin her fun earlier on that day. It was expected for Asuka to do that, after all ugly ducklings gather together, but Misa? Unacceptable. That girl was only a snob who would soon learn how to respect and obey the veterans (Tsukiko studied at Tsuchihara since first grade). Deep inside, Tsukiko felt jealous of Misa and also of her friend Kumiko. Tsukiko wasn't ugly, but also not pretty either. She was nothing compared to their angelic beauty. That was the reason she bullied Sato so much: she needed someone even uglier than her to forget her frustrations.

Only Tomoko's voice a few feet away broke the sound of turning doorknobs:

"Girls, I found it! There's a good house here!" – And then the other two joined her to investigate.

Tomoko was right. The house was of an average size, but well equipped, being previously used by a middle class family instead of the poor ones who lived down the street. The front door opened straight to the large, white kitchen, with a round table at the center and a staircase leading to the second floor. The girls took a look inside the fridge: it was filled with delicious food, and that house seemed to have all the resources they needed. Tomoko and Tsukiko started screaming loudly and running around, while Kumiko just stared at them, a grin smile on her face.

"Girls"- interrupted Kumiko with a smile – "go upstairs to check what we have there."

Kumiko could be quiet and seem like a shadow to the others, proud and distant. But she was the leader, after all, and only the tone of her voice and her eyes expressed everything she wanted. Tomoko and Tsukiko obeyed her without a single word. Kumiko was so cold she did not even kept looking at her friends while they headed upstairs, Tsukiko leaving her heroin on the blue tablecloth. Kumiko stared at the large clock on a wall, thinking.

"Yes… it's about time. Time to start this thing." – The class beauty whispered to herself, her eyes as sharp as a lynx and as cold as pure ice. Kumiko then went to the heroin bag on the table and put it inside Tomoko's duffel bag, shoving it deeply within the belongings so that no one could see it.

In another part of the neighborhood, Chitose Higurashi and Yoriko Shibasaki walked down a narrow path. That region of the city had almost no constructions at all, just some random stores, all of them closed down. The two friends, who always talked to each other on every possible situation, now walked side by side in awkward silence. On their hands, their weapons: Yoriko had a large wooden sickle, and Chitose, a nunchaku. Both were not very good weapons and the pair lamented their bad luck. But they had no choice but to keep moving forward, desperately looking for a place to hide. Dawn was already coming, and the sun was clearly visible. But it didn't feel safer. The Program had only started and now the rule was to kill or be killed.

Yoriko decided to say something just to break the silence.

"Chitose-chan, who do you think will play this thing?" – Yoriko had no idea of what she just said would mean to her friend. Instantly, Chitose started trembling and stopped walking. She seemed to be in fear, and Yoriko realized that she was sweating on the side of her face. Chitose had just remembered something she just wanted to forget.

"Chitose-chan, what's wrong?"

"I think… maybe Kumiko Noma will play." – Yoriko wasn't expecting for that answer. Sure, Kumiko was strange to say the least, but Yoriko would never associate someone so beautiful and un-aggressive with a monster who would kill it's own classmates. "Why?" was the only word Yoriko could answer.

"A week ago, during that really hard Maths exam, I did not study enough and decided to look at her test…. It was a quick glance…. I didn't know the answer…." – Yoriko raised her eyebrow, puzzled.

"She looked back at me with such a cold stare…. Those eyes… her eyes were so cold and piercing… it was scary." – Now Chitose sweated and trembled so much that it was obvious that she was saying the truth. "There's something really wrong about her, I can feel it." Yoriko did not know what to answer. She hated Kumiko, but for her nobody would play that game, not even Tsukiko, the class bully. Yoriko was still way too naïve.

Suddenly, a voice reached the girls. An annoying, baby-like, high pitched voice. It was Miki Nakayoshi, who, along with her friend Kageri, was the gossip queen of the class.

"Shibasaki-san! Higurashi-san! I'm so glad I found you, I was so scared!" – Miki started running towards the girls, her long ponytail shaking behind her. Miki ran so clumsily she almost seemed to be falling, and her pretty face did not seem to be sad at all, but rather threatening. A bit too threatening….

Yoriko quickly grabbed her sickle and, in a quick movement, pointed it at Miki's face, making the girl stop, surprised and scared at the same time. In Miki's hands, there was a large Bowie knife. No match for Yoriko's big sickle. "Why? What have I done?" – asked Miki, frightened.

"Miki, I don't want to hurt you."- said Yoriko in the most polite and gentle way as possible. – "But we are not friends and I don't know you well. If you want to go with us, prove first that you won't attack." – Drops of sweat ran through Yoriko's face. She wasn't angry or ready to kill, just scared. If Miki decided to stab her or Chitose, Yoriko wouldn't know what to do. She never used any kind of weapon before.

Miki took a deep breath and then answered. "Fine, then." – She said, dropping her knife on the floor. "I won't try to kill you, I just want to find my friend Kageri and get the hell out of here."

"OK." – Yoriko put her sickle down and the pair, now turned into a trio, kept on walking through the street. They were only a few blocks away from the school, too frightened to even look at the map to see their localization. At every single sound, the girls, especially Yoriko, stopped and listened attentively. Danger was all around them. Yoriko regretted having watched The Program on television once. She saw an image of a girl being brutally shot in the head. Her forehead was cracked open and her brain exploded. Yoriko saw it for only one second and then changed the channel. It was already too late. "Please God, don't make me have the same fate as that girl", thought the tall girl as she walked, sickle in hand.

The group finally reached a more open area that seemed like a small plaza. There was a water fountain at the center of it, and the trio stopped to rest for a while, sitting on the edge of the fountain. It was finally daytime. Again, the girls remained in silence, until Miki decided to break the ice by saying one of her nonsensical, hurtful sentences she said to others so many times.

"When I leave this damned island, the first thing I'll do is to fuck my boyfriend like I've never done before." – A promiscuous smile illuminated her pretty, long face. "What about you two, by the way? As I know, you should have gotten a boyfriend already. If you die here, you'll die as virgins." – Miki was sarcastic and also very spoiled. She loved to be mean to people behind their backs. Miki was very popular, but only in other classes, where other students did not have to endure her gossips and constant talking in class. On Yoriko and Chitose's eyes, Miki was just an idiot. But she didn't seem aggressive or someone who would actually play. The two friends decided to just ignore her.

Miki kept playing with her black ponytailed hair for a while, until she came back at full-speed. If there was something Miki could never tolerate, it was being ignored. She was the center of the world, everybody knew it. Those two losers would have to listen. "So…. Recently, I've been hearing from some people that you both decided to befriend that fatty, Sato Mizunoe… I don't have anything against it, but you know, some people say that you are the same thing as the people as you hang out with…" – mocked Miki, even more openly than before. This was when Chitose got enough of it.

"Miki, could you please stop being annoying and actually help us in something?" – The short girl ranted without even looking at her classmate. If Miki wanted a fight, then she would have it. After all, Chitose knew that Miki wouldn't have the balls to kill anyone.

Miki got up on her feet and started walking towards Chitose and Yoriko. The atmosphere around the fountain and the small plaza grew tenser.

"Look girl, nobody asked for your opinion, OK? If you like to hang out with a loser, than it's not my fa…"- she never got to finish the sentence.

"I'm warning you: leave this place right now." – Chitose now looked at Miki face to face. Yoriko wanted that awkward situation to stop at that exact moment. She did not want a confrontation, much less an useless death.

"Chitose, let's just stop right here. Let's not fight in a game where our objective is to kill each other. It's exactly what they want us to do." – Yoriko hoped that her friend would understand.

"Yes, Chitose, listen to your friend over there." – Miki continued instead, riding in Yoriko's words. – "You are making me angry, and you won't want to see it when I get angry."

"So what?"- Chitose was now furious. She wouldn't lose that easily to an idiot like Miki. During a very long time, she had to endure her classmate mocking her and her friends openly, gossiping about their lives, spreading rumors. Always in a group, of course. What a coward. "What are you gonna do now, Miki? Call Kageri to say mean things about me by cell phone? That bitch is so weak she's probably dead by now. And I'm sure you'll soon die as well." – Chitose calculated every single word she uttered to inflict as much pain as possible on the gossip queen.

"SHUT UP!" – The mention of her friend Kageri truly angered Miki. She took her knife out of her pocket and quickly ran towards Chitose, going for the kill. Who did that bitch thought she was? Let's see if she would say the same thing again with her throat slit. But Miki made a mistake: she forgot about Yoriko. In a desperate move to save her friend's life, the tall girl grabbed her sickle and quickly stabbed the side of Miki's neck.

"Aaack…" – mumbled Miki, horrified, as the warm red blood ran through her uniform and dripped onto the floor. Yoriko and Chitose were also terrified by that vision. They could not speak or close her eyes, fixed on the horror taking place in front of them.

Miki slowly pulled the sickle out of her neck, and tried to grab it. All she wanted, in the middle of the pain, was to stab Yoriko and kill her with it. But she was already too weak, turning white from the loss of blood. The removal of the sickle only made the bleeding worse. Now there was a puddle of red liquid on the stoned floor, and half of Miki's uniform was bright red, her blue skirt purple with blood. Some drops fell into the fountain's water, dying it. As life left her body along with the blood, Miki could only think about revenge and murder. But it was getting darker…darker….

When everything was over, Miki was lying near the fountain in a pool of her own blood, a single large cut on her neck. Her dead eyes deeply stared at Yoriko, who now screamed hysterically.

"No! No! Oh my God! No!" – Yoriko was now crying. Why did that had to happen? Why? Why? Who would think that it would be Yoriko the first one to play that game? Chitose was crying as well, deeply regretting the confrontation that started all of this. She could be dead, but the last thing she wanted to do was to cause a classmate to die.

The two girls heard steps coming to where they were. Chitose grabbed her friend's hand and started running to somewhere far, far away, where they could not feel the shadow of death hanging over them. They did not even pick up Miki's knife. There was no time.

Soon after the two friends disappeared, the cousins Hisame and Mari Shikamoto entered the plaza and screamed when seeing Miki's body. Mari quickly started sobbing on her cousin's shoulder. Hisame hated her cousin's fragility and tendency to cry, but she did not complain at that time. Seeing a dead body wasn't something that happened every day. The Program had finally begun.

Hisame grabbed Miki's Bowie on the floor and put it in her pocket. Now the cousins would have some chance in that game. Hisame had gotten a large ax, but Mari's weapon was as useless as the girl herself: a frying pan. The two went through a different direction than the one Chitose and Yoriko left by, trying not to look at the dead body a few feet behind them.

Girl #16, Miki Nakayoshi- Dead

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